Jerusalem Day 7 - August 31st

Our first stop in Israel today was one of the most amazing and beautiful sights that we have seen. Although it was nothing like any of the other places we have been to. We went to Soreq Cave, a nature reserve that was in Soreq Valley. It was full of stalactites and stalagmites, a cobination of CO2, water, carbonic acid, and limestone. We weren't allowed to touch any of them because the bacteria of our hands could hinder the process. It was amazing to realize that some of the columns were as old as 1 million years. The cave was found during a routine explosion on the property. Today it has been made into a beautiful nature reserve. That is one of the most beautiful things I have seen since being here and I loved it! From the site we could see the area of Israel that Sampson was from. Our next major stop of the day was the Valley of Ella, where David killed Goliath. Today it is a huge field with a dried up stream. In the winter time the stream floods with water, but today it was bone dry. We had a Scripture reading and a dramatic reinactment of the story of David and Goliath. It was really neat to be standing on the same exact field where the Philistines met the future King David. Most of us picked up rocks out of the stream to take home.

The last site we saw before lunch was the site where the Ark of the Covenant was kept during the time of Eli and his two sons Hophni and Phinehas. This was an amazing site to see because there were still ruins there of the city that once stood. Sadly Hophni and Phinehas decided to try and defeat the Philistines because they figured they had immunity with the Ark on their side. When Eli found out about the death of his sons in their failed attempt, he too died. We had one more site after lunch, and this was another one of my favorite places. We saw the hill where Jesus gave his famous sermon of the beatitudes. There were still ruins there as well as a museum. Our day ended a little bit earlier today, but we crammed a ton of interesting information in. Israel still has so much more to offer.

Jerusalem Day 4,5,6 - August 28th-30th

Our first weekend in Jerusalem was rather busy but a complete blast. The weekend here is Friday and Saturday rather than Saturday and Sunday. For the Jewish community, the sabbath starts on Friday night and goes into Saturday. We got to sleep in Friday morning and then went out to a market where a lot of people were getting their last minute supplies for Shabbat dinner. The market was a sight to experience, crowds of people everywhere and more food than you can imagine. After the market we got to do some of our own shopping before we ate dinner. The best part of the day was going to the Western Wall (also known as the Wailing Wall to Americans). Going to the Western Wall at all is a major excitement, but being there on the first night of Shabbat.....amazing. So many Jews from Israel and all over the world gather at the wall to pray for the city of Jerusalem. I have heard about the wall before but never imagined how amazing it would be to see. After the wall, everything was a dead zone. In Israel, Shabbat basically means that there is complete rest for the Sabbath. There are no Jewish shops open, no Jewish clubs open and no Jewish people walking around. Our school building is located in the middle of a ton of Jewish run business....therefore there was absolutely nothing open. We ended up at the one place that stays open all the time....McDonalds. Not my first choice, but whatever works.

Saturday was another lazier day. We had the entire day to go shopping other than taking a test and going to Shabbat service in the evening. Since everything was closed around our school we took the opportunity to go down to the Arab part of the Old City. There was a huge market there with tons of shops open. I tried my first shot of pomegranate juice, which was extremely strong! It was really good though. Some of our group got their first taste of bartering with the locals. It went pretty well I guess. After our authentic Shabbat dinner, we went to a Messianic Jewish service. It was completely amazing listening to them worship in Hebrew. The message was also given in Hebrew but we were given headsets with a translator feeding us the translation. The message was on Caeserea Phillipi which was really cool because we visited there a few days ago and could picture it all. After church, Shabbat is over and therefore the city goes crazy....The clubs next to us were louder and went on for longer than ever before! We ended up having our own dance offs inside. The coffee from our amazing little coffeeshop also helped us in staying awake....

Today we did more visiting. It was odd to know it was a Sunday and people here treat it like a Monday morning. We visited a few churches this morning, my favorite being the site where Mary went to see Elizabeth. There are now paintings and sculptures there commemorating the moment. We then walked around the town to get a better understanding of the culture before going on to Israel Museum. This museum has a huge model of the City of Jerusalem as it looked in 60A.D. This means that it looks almost the same as when Jesus would have been there. I was especially interested in the history of Herod and his religion. He was Jewish, but was a converted Jew and basically built the Temple in order to please the Jewish people. We also saw a film teaching us more about the dead sea scrolls. We got to see the jars in which the scrolls were found as well as a couple of the Scrolls themselves. They were truly amazing. Thousands and thousands of years old and they are still intact.....incredible. Our next stop was for another falafel lunch (my favorite). We visited a tourist shop and then headed for our last stop of the day. We learned a lot about the Israeli government of today and how it works. We saw what is basically the White House of Israel, where the Prime Minister's office is. We also saw more of the congress buildings as well as the histoical menorah outside of the Knesset. There was a lot of information to jam in today, along with a lot of stops. Tomorrow should be another great day...

Jerusalem Day 3 - August 27th 2009

The Golan Heights, in my opinion, has got to be one of the best views in Isreal.... We saw Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria, all countries bordering Israel. The Damascus Road, where Paul had his amazing encounter with Christ, is visible from the Heights. We also got to walk through an old barracks used by the Israeli army. It was really neat to see where the fighting actually takes place and to meet some of the soldiers on active duty. From the Golan Heights we traveled down to Caeserea Philippi. We stopped for some lunch, Druze pizza. It was rather interesting....pita bread with some kind of strong cheese and zata (olive oil with some spices in it). The Druze are a secret religion who believe in Allah but do not believe in Mohammad. Caeserea Philippi was an extremely interesting site. The first thing we learned about Caeserea Philippi was that it is where the Messianic Confession was made by Peter. It's important because it is a political and spiritual site. The gates of Hell are located here, along with temples dedicated to Pan, the god of nature. So many idols and artifacts were laying around everywhere still. From Caeserea Philippi we traveled over to Tel Dan. This was a nature reserve and probably my favorite stop of the day. We took a hike through the woods and learned about the significance of Tel Dan. It is one of the rivers that runs into the Jordan and is extremely clean water. It is also one of the best sources of water in Israel. Along our walk we saw the Canaanite Gate. This is the gate that Abraham himself walked through. That was one of the most amazing and most ancient things we have seen so far. Not far from there we saw the place where Samuel sat as a judge. This was also interesting because it was so close to so many other artifacts that were hundreds of years older than it. Today was the most fun day and I feel like we saw the most interesting things, even though we were on our bus for at least 5 and a half hours total. Israel couldn't be more amazing...

Jerusalem Day 2 - August 26th 2009

Today was our second day in the Holy City. Our morning started out with retracing some of the steps Christ took on the night before his death. We drove up to the Mount of Olives where we were taught by our tour guide, Mark. We learned exactly where Christ was and went that night. He traveled back and forth across about a mile of land from the time that he was arrested until he was taken to Caiaphas' house to await cruxifiction. Visiting the Mount of Olives was honestly not what I expected at all. We were on the same ground that Christ stood on, and yet today there are not all that many olive trees. So many Jews are buried on the land because it is where Christ is coming to once again. The Garden of Gethsemane was right beneath the Mount of Olives. There is now a church there shaped like a teardrop. It is to commemorate Christ's tears for Jerusalem from that hill. Being where Christ was and reading the passages in Matthew about him crying out for Jerusalem was amazing. We were looking at Jerusalem just as Jesus was all of those years ago. Later we went on and visited Caiaphas's house. It was interesting to see all of the rooms and prison rooms where so many people have been held while awaiting death. When we went into the pit where Jesus was held the night before his cruxifiction, you could almost feel the pressure in the air. We all crowded into the room and listened as Dr. Waddell explained that this was the most reliable choice for the actual place Jesus was before his death. We all stood in the darkness and sang together after having a moment of silence. Being where Jesus was while he was on this earth is my favorite part of this study program so far. Knowing that I am looking at what Christ looked at with his human eyes is truly incredible. Our afternoon was spent visiting David's tomb, the Upper Room, and a few more churches. The sights in Jerusalem are like none I have ever seen. There is so much history here; it's unbelievable....